Ever-growing pile of rubbish makes eyesore

DUMP: The head of the Dannevirke Community Board is fed up with industrial waste being dumped at the town's railway station and wants it removed.

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The head of the Dannevirke Community Board is fed up with industrial waste being dumped at the town's railway station and wants it removed.

The 20-metre-long trail of debris includes broken concrete, bollards, pipes, rusted wire netting, glass bottles and bitumen, while the land along one of Dannevirke's main routes has been left to grow weeds.

Dannevirke Community Board chairman Ray Teahan said the area was "a bloody eyesore" and he wanted action taken.

But it is unclear who is responsible for the mess.

"It's just becoming a dump and people are using it that way. We don't want this to become another tip," Mr Teahan said.

The railyard, which is near a busy roundabout on Queen St, runs adjacent to Dannevirke's main thoroughfare, High St.

Mr Teahan, a volunteer bus driver for GoBus who passes the heap four or five times a day, said the pile had expanded in the past year.

"It seems to be growing all the time, and I don't like seeing rubbish piled up anywhere, especially when it's right by the main road," Mr Teahan said.

The community board approached Tararua District Council at the start of October about remedying the rubbish, and was informed the landowners would be contacted.

The council's governance manager Richard Taylor then wrote to KiwiRail on October 12 asking it to fix the untidy railyards."It's their responsibility . . . it's part of [KiwiRail's] infrastructure and property," Mr Taylor said.

When contacted by the Manawatu Standard yesterday, a KiwiRail spokeswoman said the waste deposited was not on KiwiRail's property or as a result of work done by the organisation.

"Much of that material is not on rail land, but former rail land now administered by Land Information New Zealand.''KiwiRail was aware of the problem, and was working to rectify it, the spokeswoman said.

"There is a small amount of rail material for which arrangements have been made to have removed.

"However, the vast majority of the dumped material appears to be roading material, which has been put there by third parties not associated with rail."

KiwiRail staff are trying to identify who is responsible for the dumpings.

Both the council and the community board are yet to receive a response to the letter.

The KiwiRail spokeswoman could not confirm if the letter had been received by the person it was sent to.

A Land Information New Zealand spokesman said more research was required before he could comment.